Holy heist, Batman! Thief drops through roof to nab $1.4 million in comics

About 450 Batman and Detective comics -- similar to this first edition from 1939 -- were stolen from a West Boca collector, investigators said, (DC comics, courtesy)

A fortune in Batman comics has been stolen from a West Boca man and he is reaching out to the comic-collecting community around the world in the hopes of getting nearly 450 prized books back.

In a letter posted on social media sites, Randy Lawrence said his registered collection was valued at $1.4 million and that it was stolen from an indoor air-conditioned, double-locked storage unit.

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“For me this is a first and on such a high level it’s been devastating,” he said in the letter. “This collection was my nest egg, and I had worked so hard and done without for so long to put this together that it being taken away from me this way has left me in a very bad way.”

From humble beginnings in the mid-1970s, there’s been super growth at conventions honoring comic book, TV, movie, and video heroes in Florida.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the break-in that happened sometime between Nov. 28 and Jan. 8 when Lawrence reported the theft at a public storage unit in the 19000 block of N. State Road 7.

He told detectives the only person who may have seen him loading boxes in the unit was a contractor who struck up a conversation about comics while fixing a leak in the facility sometime in July.

Lawrence said the locks were not broken but he noticed some boxes had been moved around and a wire was hanging from the ceiling so he thinks the thief came in through the roof, according to the theft report.